The Shadow King Saga 2
by Ebenzener
Summary: Yes, this is the sequel. Three OCs. Yes I know I love OCs. Anyway, the Shadow King has returned! Can the XMen stop him without killing one of their teammates in the process? Most importantly, who is Veronica? Read on to find out!
1. Awakening

Yeps, I'm back with a sequel.

The last time I stopped, Psyche was comatose and was still the physical host of the Shadow King. This time, Psyche awakens, and with him the Shadow King. What will happen? Will someone else fall into a dreadful coma? Who is Veronica? Read on and find out!

Anyway, um... oh, yeah, intro. My X-Crew goes as follows: The X-Men are Professor X, Wolverine, Storm, Jean Grey as the Phoenix, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Shadowcat, Spyke, and Colossus. The trainees are Iceman, Jubilee, Cannonball, Sunspot, Psylocke, Multiple, Candle (Veronica Andrews, 15, a red-headed girl with the ability to create and control fire; she was one of the Shadow King's pawns in the previous story, and upon being released from his psychic control she decided to join the X-Men), Magnify (Jackson "Jake" Cattermole, 16, able to amplify any form of mutant ability; also decided to join the X-Men after being released from the Shadow King's psychic control), Psyche (Dylan Ecker, 15, an empath who can project his consciousness out of his body; he's still a trainee because throughout half of his test he was possessed by the Shadow King and it didn't count), Berzerker, Magma and the Scarlet Witch (because their test was influenced by the Shadow King, and as such, it didn't count).

New format of writing: all telepathic communication will be written in these brackets.

Please R&R. Enjoy the story!

-THE SHADOW KING SAGA 2-

Dylan Ecker lay on a bed in the X-Mansion's sick bay, comatose, for almost two weeks since the events that had revolved around him and a disembodied psychic entity called the Shadow King had occured. Dylan, a fifteen-year old teenage boy, with dirty-blond hair and black irises and features that neither attracted not repelled, gifted with the power of empathy (a version of telepathy that dealed with emotions instead of thoughts) and projection of his consciousness out of his body, had been possessed by the Shadow King, and had put other mutants under his control as they went all out to kill Charles Xavier. After losing a battle on the Astral Plane, Dylan fell into a coma. At that time, the Shadow King was in his mind, and that meant that he was imprisoned in Dylan's body until he woke up.

During the time that Dylan was comatose, quite a lot of things have happened. Veronica Andrews, known to the X-Men previously as Candle, and Jackson "Jake" Cattermole, known to the X-Men previously as Magnify, have both joined the X-Men after being released from the Shadow King's psychic control (they were two of the mutants to have been put under his control by Dylan) and are both waiting for their test to graduate from trainee-hood and become official X-Men.

Candle and Magnify, when together in combat, were unstoppable. Once, during a Danger Room simulation, they combined their powers together (Candle could create and control fire, and magnify could amplify any form of mutant power), and they had destroyed all the enemy robots before two minutes were even up. Out of combat, they were also just as compatible. They were also a couple, and they did almost everything together; they even shared the same timetable.

Shadowcat, under Professor X's tutelage, has mastered walking on air; Betsy Braddock, also known as Psylocke, a fifteen-year-old Chinese teenage girl with purple streaks through her otherwise black hair, has recently learnt how to launch telepathic attacks on the mind. This was a commendable achievement for a fifteen year old telepath who discovered her gift only two years ago; too bad it does not work in the Danger Room. Everything other than the walls of the Danger Room is a hologram surrounded by a force field, and seeing as force fields do not have minds, Betsy can only rely on her fighting skills in the Danger Room.

For the past two weeks, at four in the afternoon, Professor X would be by Dylan's side in the sick bay, probing his mind, trying to rouse him from his sleep. Today, it was no different.

Dylan! Professor X's voice echoed in Dylan's mind. Dylan walked out of the white mist that was abundant in the world that was his mind. Focus on waking up, Dylan. Focus on your friends. Your family. They want to see you. "I can't," Dylan whispered as he folded his hands across his chest; it was very cold in his mind. "I've tried before, Professor. Every time, whenever I try, he will bring me down again." No! Professor X replied. This is your body. You can take control of it. Don't you want to come out and see the world again? "Well," Dylan paused for a while before deciding that he wanted to try to escape the cold, cold subconscious mind that he was trapped in, together with the Shadow King, who keeped trying to kill him so that he could fully take over his body,and go back into the real world. "I'll try." Good, Professor X said, Now, concentrate on opening your eyes and waking up. Transcend beyond your coma and see yourself awakening again. Concentrate..., and Dylan did.

Dylan felt as if he was flying; he was filled with a floating sensation and he suddenly took in a huge breath and his view turned to darkness. Slowly, he tried to open his eyes, for his eyelids seemed so heavy. And when he succeeded, what he saw shocked him, for he saw Professor X looking at him concernedly, a tacky yellow blanket and blue-green hospital clothes. Professor X's face suddenly changed expression, from concern to happiness.

"Dylan!" Professor X said with a broad grin on his face, "you've made it!" "Yes, Professor, I have..." Dylan said with joy in his voice, until his voice trailed off into nothingness, and suddenly grabbed at his head. "Dylan? Dylan, are you all right?" Professor X said and made as if to go closer to Dylan. Dylan shivered as the harsh winter coldness inside his inner mind went forth and invaded his body, and as the image of the Shadow King, a cloaked Egyptian man who seemed to be surrounded by perpetual darkness, flashed in his mind.

"Get out," Dylan screamed inside his mind. "Get out of me!" The Shadow King merely laughed, saying, "Now, now, Dylan, what makes you think I'll do that?" Upon finishing his sentence, he disappeared, and Dylan's tense body relaxed, only to tense up again as Professor X said, "Dylan, are you all right?", only to see in shock as Dylan's skin darkened to the point of looking as if his skin were black, and then turn back to normal, as all the darkness went to his eyes. He looked at Professor X with a psychotic look on his face, and it did not take a genius like Professor X to know what had happened; the Shadow King had once again taken over Dylan's body.

The expression on Professor X's face turned from concern to shock, and, underlying the first layer of shock, was fear. Dylan, now under the Shadow King's control, jumped out of the bed and ran out of the room, knocking into Jean and Scott, who were walking outside the room.

Jean, Scott and Dylan all laid sprawled on the corridor floor, until Jean decided to sit up and see who the mysterious assailant who had crashed into them was.

"Dylan?" Jean said in surprise as she stared at Dylan, his wild, crazed eyes giving him the look of a deranged madman who was on the loose. By this time, Scott had sat up as well, and was equally surprised when he caught sight of the fellow X-Man who had been comatose for the previous two weeks. "Dylan!" Scott said in equal surprise as Jean had when she first looked at Dylan, who was now staring murderously at the couple. "Dylan?" Scott said, beginning to feel wary of Dylan, "are you alright?"

Dylan stared right into Scott's and Jean's eyes, and both of them knew something was wrong. One, Dylan was staring right at them with a psychotic look on his face, and Professor X had came out of the room from which Dylan had ran out, alarm written all over his face in bold.

Dylan's gaze moved from Scott and Jean to Professor X, and his eyes ominously turned black as the psychotic expression on his face turned to hatred, as the Shadow King launched a telepathic shockwave at Professor X, who had not blocked his mind in time, and moaned as the wave of psychic energy shocked his mind and he flinched for a moment before going into a headache, experiencing major discomfort as his head crackled with what seemed like electricity with a black tint.

"Dylan!" Jean screamed, not knowing what was going on. Professor X had never told anybody that the Shadow King was still trapped inside Dylan's mind. Turning around, not giving Jean a chance to finish her sentence, Dylan said in a voice that showed that the person talking was not him; the gay friendliness that trademarked Dylan's personality was not in the harsh tone of voice that was in the voice, full of anger and hate and unfeeling cold, that spoke.

"I'm not Dylan!" The voice screamed through Dylan's mouth. "Dylan is gone! Dead! I am the Shadow King!"

Downstairs, in the kitchen, Betsy and Bobby were eating chocolate chip ice cream out of baby blue vanilla bowls when they heard the commotion from upstairs.

"Let's go see what happened," Bobby said to Betsy, and as he was halfway out of the kitchen, Betsy said, "Let's not waste time, Bobby," and held on to Bobby's hand as she crawled into the shadow of the refridgerator and disappeared along with Bobby.

Upstairs, from beneath the bed where Dylan slept for a fortnight, sprang two shadows which formed into Betsy and Bobby, holding hands. Letting go of each other's hands and looking out of the room, Bobby and Betsy saw Scott and Jean standing away from Dylan, the former pair surrounded by a bubble of telekinetic energy, as Jean's face showed utmost concentration.

"What's going on?" Bobby asked Jean, who was not in the mood for replying as she had to keep the bubble up. When Bobby turned to look at Betsy, he saw that her face seemed to show some strain as well. "Jean and Dylan are fighting," Betsy said to Bobby. Being a telepath as well, she could sense that Dylan and Jean were engaging in psychic combat now.

Back in the corridor, Professor X had put himself back together. Sensing Bobby and Betsy in the vicinity, he sent a message to them. Bobby, Betsy, get out of here! Bobby looked around, looking for Professor X, but Betsy, knowing better, replied, No, Professor, we want to help, and she ran out of the room into the corridor where Bobby was. Deciding to attack Dylan, a blade that seemed to be made of shadows formed around Betsy's right fist, and she ran towards Dylan, intending to short-circuit his system like she did the last time.

As Betsy ran towards Dylan, the Shadow King decided to attack her before she attacked him, and he raised his left hand at Betsy, and black telepathic energy glowed from his hand. Everyone thought that he was going to form a blade just like Betsy's, but instead, the energy formed a curved handle that extended sideways till it took the form of a crossbow. A black bolt appeared in Dylan's right hand, and he fired the bolt at Betsy, who, a couple of seconds prior to Dylan's firing of the crossbow, decided to run, and she disappeared into the shadow of a potted plant a split second before the bolt came into contact with the plant, which exploded in a blast of crackling black energy.

Looking back at Dylan in astonishment, Jean set up the telekinetic shield again, just as Dylan had prepared another bolt. However, instead of firing the bolt at those enclosed in the shield, Dylan did the unexpected and turned to face Professor X, and let go of the bolt, sending it flying towards the Professor's head. The Professor, staring in utmost concentration at the black bolt, raised a hand at it, causing the bolt to harmlessly disappear.

Dylan's face contorted in rage as the veins in his arms and face turned dangerously black, and seemed as if he was going to scream, but it seemed as if he decided not to do that as he ran back into the sick bay. Jean followed Dylan, and as he was halfway through the room, she gestured as if she intended him to move as if he were a puppet attached to strings from her fingertips, and Dylan was lifted off the floor and slammed onto a bed. Looking as if he would kill, Dylan reached out a hand at Jean, and a few black darts shot from his hand at her, and they absorbed themselves into her body and she was thrown backwards as the migraine kicked in. Getting off the bed, Dylan ran towards the window and opened it, and when he looked out, the Shadow King realised that attempting to jump off was tantamount to suicide, and he turned around, only to face Professor X, Scott and Bobby.

Get out of Dylan, Professor X demanded. Dylan's face contorted in anger as his eyes glowed black, and all the darkness that had invaded his body went away as he collapsed onto the floor.

At the very same time, downstairs, in the entrance hall, a black humanoid shape sprang from the floor and took the shape of an Egyptian man with a beard and a brown cloak that covered his body, who promptly ran out of the mansion and into the city of Bayville, Massachusetts.


	2. Emerald

Dylan was once again lying down unconscious in the sick bay, his persona trapped in his body while the Shadow King's ran around in Bayville.

All the X-trainees were gathered in the Danger Room, where they were having a practice simulation. The metal walls of the circular room faded out to become a classy Victorian-style room. In the middle of the room, a woman in a green dress, emerald jewellery covering her wrists, sat on a teak chair. The woman looked up at the recruits with her green eyes, and smiled sinisterly as the furniture in the room began to glow green and swing themselves in a circular motion.

"Magma, Scarlet Witch!" Iceman, the leader of the recruits for this exercise, shouted across the room. "Lead your side of the room!" The Scarlet Witch nodded, and flung her hands at a glowing grandfather clock who was flying at her, which stopped in its tracks and exploded, its greenish aura replaced by blue. Sunspot turned black as coal, surrounding himself with a fiery corona, as a dresser and lamp flew at him and merely bounced off him in pieces. Berzerker hurled a crackling electrical wave at an impending chandelier, which exploded into millions of glass shards, which instead of slashing everybody in the room, fell to the floor harmlessly under the eye of the Scarlet Witch.

On the other side of the room, there was nothing left for the mysterious green glow to hold on to; Candle and Magnify had destroyed everything. The enigmatic woman stood up from her chair and waked over to them, and chunks broke off from the floor and ceiling and began swirling around Iceman. From the darkest part of Iceman's shadow, a femals silhouette sprang out and stepped out into the light, becoming Psylocke. "Come on," Psylocke said as she held on to Iceman's hand as she jumped into the shadow of a particularly large chunk of ceiling as if it were a hole, bring Iceman with her, promptly appearing beside Magnify and Candle.

"Can we do it now?" Candle asked. "Go ahead," Iceman said, rubbing his hands together. "I'm ready." Magnify held out his hand and clasped Candle's, and they both looked intently at the flying chunks of concrete. Candle reached out a hand; a flaming beam of orange energy which gave off intense heat knocked the chunks onto the ground, starting a fire in the process. Iceman gestured at the fire and a fine mist shot from his hands and extinguished the flame.

The woman seemed incensed. She stared at Iceman, Candle and Magnify, and shrieked, "Nobody defeats Emerald!" Her eyes glowed green as Iceman, Candle and Magnify glowed in a green aura of the same colour and were flung across the room and out of the door. "Take your words back, Emerald," Psylocke said through gritted teeth as she ran at Emerald with a blade sprouting from her fist. As she attempted to drive her blade into Emerald's forehead, Emerald pushed Psylocke away and fired a green blast at her, knocking her into a wardrobe. Emerald clapped her hands, and the doors of the wardrobe slammed shut.

From across the room, Magma hurled a ball of flaming magma at Emerald, who fired one of her green bolts at it, and they created quite a spectacular effect as they cancelled each other out with a bang. "Go kill yourself," Emerald said, as she telekinetically sent a chunk of wall flying at Magma, knocking her out of the room, to where Iceman, Magnify and Candle were, "or maybe I should do it for you." The chunk of wall, still floating inthe air above Magma, began to "shed"- bits and pieces of the chunk dropped off until all that was left was a very sharp dagger.

As the dagger plunged downwards towards Magma's chest, Iceman stumbled forwards over her head and grabbed onto the telekinetically controlled dagger, trying to pull it backwards. "Bobby!" Magnify shouted. "What are you doing! You're powerful, not invincible!" "Yes, Bobby's not invincible," Cannonball said to Magnify, "but I am," and he flew at Emerald with superhuman speed, knocking her onto the floor wincing in pain.

A moment later, the woman, together with everything else, faded away, and everyone found themselves in the Danger Room again. "Very good, X-Recruits," Storm's voice boomed through the speakers, as she said, "you may now leave the Danger Room." The door slid open as everybody walked out of the room.

Iceman walked over to Psylocke, who was walking slower than everyone else, and said, "Betsy, I know this really good ice cream parlour downtown, wanna come?" "No, Bobby, thanks anyway," Psylocke said, not really looking at him as she spoke. "Well, then," Bobby continued, "wanna go the park?" "No," Betsy replied. "Well, um, do you want to-" Bobby said, but halfway through his sentence, Betsy walked into his shadow and vanished.


	3. Enter the Morlocks

A picture of Amahl Farouk, the Shadow King, was being projected onto the large, white screen by the overhead projector, attached to the ceiling of the conference room: a large room the size of an average classroom where conferences were held.

"The Shadow King is loose yet again," said Professor X, facing all the members of the X-Men, in a grave tone. "Using Dylan's projection power, the Shadow King has managed to project his own personality out into reality, instead of last time, when he projected his host body outwards. He has retained all his powers, and is highly dangerous, as in this form, he can shapeshift and teleport as well. The combined abilities of Dylan and the Shadow King is immensely powerful, and is not to be underestimated."

Deciding to get on to the main part of his conference with the X-Men, Professor X paused for a while before saying, "We will have to take the Shadow King down."

"But how're we going to do that if he's sharing a body with Dylan?" Jean enquired.

"This is where I come in," Professor X said, surprising everyone, for he had never joined them on the field before. "When all of you are distracting the Shadow King, I will force Dylan's persona out of his body and into mine, and then, a psychic attack will be launched on his body, and, hopefully, the Shadow King will die, and when that happens, Dylan can go back into his own body."

Kurt raised a blue-furred, three-fingered hand into the air. "Yes, Kurt?" said Professor X. "So vere is ze Shadow King now?" Kurt asked. Sighing, the Professor said, "Like I said, the Shadow King is immensely powerful when he combines his powers with Dylan's. He has managed to make himself immune to psychic interference." Deciding to get to the point, he said, "I myself am not able to locate him."

Everyone in the conference room began to look a bit worried; if the Shadow King could protect himself from the Professor, what else could he do?

Sensing the distress level in the room, Professor X thought it was best to boost the spirits of those who sat before him. "But I have faith in all of you. You have taken the Shadow King down before; it was tough, yes, but nevertheless, you succeeded. And I know you will do so again."

Continuing with his speech, Professor X said, "the only problem now is how we find Dylan."

"We could could do it," Jean said. "If you combine your powers with mine and Betsy's we might be able to locate the Shadow King's psyche and destroy it." The Professor shook his head. "Nevertheless, Jean," he said, "even if we combine our powers together, it is still, nevertheless, a form of psychic interference. The Shadow King has shielded himself against all forms of it, so I doubt that it will work."

Ray suddenly recalled something... someone, a person from his past, a deathly pale person with yellow eyes, the very same person who had found him. He knew that they did not like to be approached by people from the surface, but this was an important situation, and the only way out was to approach them.

"I think I know some people who can help us, Professor," said Ray. "Who are they?" Professor X asked, Ray replying, "The Morlocks."

Deep down in the sewers of Bayville, Massachussetts, a group of mutants, the Morlocks, lived. These mutants, unable to live properly in society because of the physical deformities caused by their mutations, lived underground, away from the society that shunned them.

"Come on! Quickly, before anyone sees us," Wanda said, as Jean, Nightcrawler and Cannonball followed behind. The four of them were in the middle of a road at eight o'clock at night. Professor X had instructed the four of them to travel through the sewers of Bayville to find the Morlocks, and ask for their help in defeating the Shadow King, and under the bright light of a lamp post, they were in danger of being seen by other people.

Jean, Nightcrawler and Cannonball caught up with Wanda, who was standing over a manhole cover. As Wanda moved her right hand over the manhole cover, the black cover began shaking violently, and when she made a grabbing gesture with her hands, the cover shot into the air, fell to the floor and rolled to the side of the road, causing a whole lot of noise and a few lights in the nearby houses to switch on.

Jean went into the manhole first; when she had reached about three metres into the extremely large, long, vertical pipe, Wanda jumped in, and was caught in mid-air almost immediately, making her float suspended in the manhole, together with Jean. Grabbing on to Nightcrawler, Cannonball jumped into the manhole, and flew all the way down, as Nightcrawler closed his eyes in fear; holding on to Cannonball as he flew was equivalent to taking a roller coaster ride, except a lot more scarier.

Is it safe down there? Jean asked. "Yes, it is, just come down slowly, don't jump," Cannonball shouted. Responding to Cannonball's reply, Jean focused as both Wanda and her steadily floated down to the cold and wet floor of the underground sewers.

No signs of the Morlocks were found as the four X-Men walked through the damp and grimy sewer. "Can you find anyzing, Jean?" Nightcrawler asked. "I'm picking up some signals from humans, although I'm not sure if they're Morlocks," Jean replied. "Let'z go see!" Nightcrawler said in an excited whisper. "For all we know, I could be ze Morlocks!" Without awaiting a response from anybody else, Nightcrawler disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the smell of burning brimstone.

After waiting for around a minute, Nightcrawler still had not returned. "Do you think I should contact him?" Jean asked. "You'd better," Cannonball said. "I'm getting worried. He could be in danger." Placing an index finger on each temple, Jean concentrated on telepathically communicating to Nightcrawler. The process seemed a lot tedious than usual; Jean could tell that Nightcrawler was in trouble.

Kurt! Jean said. Are you okay? A faint reply was just perceivable by Jean. Apparently, I've found ze Morlocks, Nightcrawler replied. Good, now come back, we're getting worried, Jean continued. I'm... in need of some loosening, Nightcrawler said. To put it simple, I'm in trouble.

"Kurt's in trouble," Jean said, taking her fingers off her temples. "Follow me, I think I know where he is," and Jean ran off, Cannonball and Wanda following closely behind.

When the three X-Men finally found Nightcrawler, a sight beheld them. A little girl with a hand almost as large as her head, her brown hair done in two pigtails, a man with skin as pale as the newly dead, a woman with an eyepatch over her right eye (her other eye was black) and a man whose skin had a greenish tinge and looked remarkably birdlike stood around Nightcrawler, who seemed to be stuck in an awkward position that made him look as if he were halfway through a jump.

The woman with the eyepatch over her eye walked in front of all the others. "Why did you come down here from the surface world?" she asked. "There's a crisis up there," Cannonball started. "Well, at least in the mutant community, that is," Wanda added in. Cannonball continued, "Well, anyway, a powerful mutant known as the Shadow King has taken over the body of an X-Man. We know of someone, a Morlock, who can help."

"How do you know of us?" The same woman spoke.

"Ray told us," Jean said. "Ray?" The woman said, surprised. "Do you mean Berzerker?" "Yes, we do," Jean said. "Ray told us that there was somebody amongst the Morlocks who could help us locate the Shadow King." "Why would people of the surface call for us now?" The bird-resembling man said spitefully. "First, we are shunned by society to the extent that we had to resort to hiding down here. Now, only when you decide to make use of us, do you call us back!"

"That's not our intention!" Jean argued. "We never thought of tha-" "To put things straight," the bird-faced man cut Jean off, "we don't believe you. We've had enough of the surface people's tricks." "Leave us alone!" the little girl shouted. The woman with the eyepatch just stood there, not sure what to do. "Come on, Callisto, let's go," the bird-faced man said to her. Slowly, Callisto began to join the other Morlocks in a walk away from the X-Men. All except the man with exceptionally pale skin were almost out of sight. The little girl, realising that he was missing, ran back and used her normal hand to tug at his shirt, saying, "Uncle Caliban, let's go!"

All the X-Men looked surprised. "You're Caliban?" Nightcrawler said. Looking at the X-Men, the pale man, who had been revealed to be Caliban, said, "Yes, I am. I've sensed a powerful mutant in Bayville for the past month, even more powerful than you." Caliban gestured at Jean. "I think that that very same mutant is the one who was taken over by the Shadow King, for I sense two people in him." "So, will you help us to defeat the Shadow King?" Cannonball asked. "I will," Caliban said. By this time, all the other Morlocks had gathered around him. "I know what it feels to be chastised by the society. I do not want you to feel as though you have been abandoned, the way society abandoned us."

"So, you will help us?" Nightcrawler said, still trapped in that uncomfortable pose. Caliban looked at him, and nodded sombrely. "But, Caliban!" the bird-faced man said. "Don't you remember how he kicked you of of your own home?" "That was all in the past, Scaleface," Caliban said, and Scaleface knew he had said something he was not supposed to. "Don't mention that." Expertly masked sadness was in Caliban's eyes. "That's enough, Scaleface," Callisto said sternly. She knew the topic of Caliban being kicked out of his home by his father was taboo. "Callisto," Caliban said, "let's help these surface people fight the Shadow King." After a few moments of thinking, Callisto nodded her head.

Wanda looked right into Nightcrawler's eyes and blinked; crackling blue energy whose movements mimicked that of electricity ran all over his body, and his limbs began to move. Soon, he regained his movement, and was able to walk raher quickly, but was still rather stiff in his shoulders.

Both the X-Men and the Morlocks walked to the manhole from which they entered; Cannonball held on to Caliban, who held on to Scaleface as he flew upwards to the surface world with superhuman speed, Jean flew up at her normal pace, levitating the little girl and Wanda with her as well, and Nightcrawler held on to Callisto's hand as they disappeared in a puff of black smoke.


	4. Awakening Yet Again

The four X-Men led the way as they walked up to the X-Mansion. The Morlocks looked in awe, envy, and possibly even jealousy, as they walked into the plush entrance hall. In the middle of the entrance hall, Professor X sat there on his wheelchair, waiting for the Morlocks to arrive. Scaleface looked rather eager to leave as he walked together with the other Morlocks.

"Professor, these are the Morlocks," Jean introduced. "They've agreed to help to defeat the Shadow King." Callisto, the leader of the Morlocks, stepped out and said, "I'm Callisto, the leader of the Morlocks. This is Scaleface," she gestured at Scaleface, "Stunner," she gestured at the little girl with pigtails, and lastly, gesturing at Caliban, said, "and this is Caliban." "I'm Professor Charles Xavier," Professor X said. "Or, simply, Professor X, at your service." The Professor turned to Caliban and said, "Caliban, the X-Men need your help. There is an evil psychic running loose in Bayville, and we need your help to locate him." "I understand, Professor," Caliban said. "I can already sense a very strong mutant in the city." "Can you lead us there, Caliban?" The Professor said. "Yes," Caliban said, "follow me."

Caliban proceeded to walk up the main staircase, much to the confusion of everyone else. "He's up this way," Caliban said. "Professor, he's in one of your rooms." As he walked, and everyone else followed, Caliban suddenly made a choking sound and grasped at his throat as he collapsed onto the floor, coughing horribly. "Caliban!" Callisto shouted, and she and Scaleface knelt down beside him, holding on to him as though he were about to die soon. The Professor and Jean looked around the magnificent hall, as if looking for someone. "Go away," Jean said, and her eyes glowed with the bright light of the sun as far, far away, in a park in downtown Bayville, the Shadow King screamed in pain as he fell to the floor, his head glowing with the same bright light.

Back at the Mansion, Jean's fiery eyes reverted back to normal again, as everyone crowded around the unconscious Caliban. "What happened?" Callisto questioned the Professor loudly. "The Shadow King launched a psychic attack on him, Callisto," the Professor replied gravely. "And you brought us here knowing that this could happen!" Scaleface shouted angrily. "Hey, it wasn't ze Professor's fault zis happened!" Kurt said, his tail swinging about in anger. "And you know this because?" Scaleface pointed an accusing finger at Nightcrawler, as Callisto put a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. "Shut up, birdface!" Wanda screamed, her fists glowing sapphire. "Stop it!" Stunner screamed as she covered her ears. "Everyone, be quiet!" Jean shouted above everyone else, but with no apparent effect as everyone ignored her and continued arguing.

Suddenly, a blinding pinkish-white light appeared along the stairway, as the light folded in on itself to form a sphere the size of a baseball, which then broke out into a humanoid shape, as the light faded off to reveal a spitting image of Dylan.

"Will all of you just shut up?" Dylan, clad in blue-green hospital clothes, said angrily, as all the present X-Men stared at him wide-eyed in surprise. It was so quiet one could hear a pin drop. "That's better," Dylan said. "Thank you." "You're awake?" Wanda questioned. "Dylan," the Professor, who was as shocked as everyone else was, said, "do you know what has been going on these few weeks?" "No," Dylan said. "But I do know you've been trying to help me out of my mind. Apparently we did it."

"Kurt and Jean," the Professor turned towards them and said, "tell everyone to go to the conference room immediately. Dylan, come with us. Wanda, bring Caliban to the sick bay." Wanda bent down, and together with Callisto, lifted Caliban up and began walking up the flight of stairs to the sick bay. Scaleface followed them up as the Professor and Dylan walked towards the conference room.

Professor X wheeled into the conference room followed by Dylan, and he turned on all the lights and went to the table, joined by Dylan. "How did you wake up?" Professor X asked. "It's funny, actually," Dylan replied. "I was walking around in my mind when I began feeling extremely concentrated feelings of rage coming from somewhere I could not identify. I couldn't stand the noise, and when the mere thought of stopping that noise popped into my mind, I found myself here." "Interesting," Professor X said. He seemed to be in deep thought, and Dylan thought it wise not to disturb him.

Dylan (or at least, Dylan's psyche) was greeted with all sorts of variations of "you're back!" each time someone came into the room, starting from Scott all the way to Rogue. Once everyone settled down, the Professor spoke.

"As everyone can see," the Professor began, "Dylan has managed to wake himself. He has projected himself out of his still comatose body. How did you do it? Betsy, who was seated beside Dylan, said. I found Jean, Wanda, Kurt and the Morlocks extremely noisy and I woke up to stop it, Dylan replied. "From this occurence, I have come up with a plan to defeat the Shadow King once and for all. We never needed to ask Caliban for help, least of all combining all our telepathic talents. All we needed was Dylan.

"Dylan is currently the host to the Shadow King, who is running loose using Dylan's projection power. So, if Dylan's projection power is made to project only the Shadow King, but not Dylan himself, Dylan will revert back to his body." "But Dylan will be unconscious then, so what's the point?" Scott pointed out. "Not nessecarily, Scott," the Professor said. "If there are two psyches, one in the body and one outside, the one inside can take control. That way, if enough psychic attacks are fired at the Shadow King to make him die, Dylan won't get hurt at all."

"It's worth a shot, Dylan," Betsy said, putting her hand on his encouragingly. "You're probably right," Dylan replied. "Hopefully you are."


	5. Defeat?

All the X-Men and Morlocks, except for Caliban (still unconscious) and Scaleface (watching Caliban) were standing around Dylan's psyche and Dylan's unconscious body. "It's weird looking at myself sleeping," Dylan remarked.

"Ready, Dylan?" the Professor asked. Dylan nodded, and he glowed pink and disappeared into his body. The Professor placed his fingers on his temples and concentrated; a pink glowing ball appeared, and as it spread into a silhouette it turned black, and a few seconds later took on the image of the Shadow King.

Jean! Psylocke! Now! the Professor commanded. Jean and Psylocke, who were standing beside the bed on which Dylan slept, closed their eyes and after a second of utmost concentration sent two bolts of stunning mental energy; one fiery and one shadowy, towards the Shadow King, who reeled backwards in pain as the bolts made contact with him. the Professor joined in, and this time, a colourless bolt of psychic energy joined the shadow and fiery ones that once again hit the Shadow King really bad.

"Apparently you think I'm not telepathic anymore, don't you?" the Shadow King said as he glowed black, then pink, and disappeared, causing Dylan's body to jerk and sit up. The moment Dylan's eyes opened, black energy crackled from them, and Dylan stood up on the floor and threw three telepathic energy balls at Jean, Psylocke and the Professor, hitting all of them hard. Seizing the opportunity, Dylan ran out of the room.

Iceman had chased Dylan out of the room, and had cornered off the door leading outwards by getting to it first and creating an ice wall there. "Dylan! Take control!" Iceman shouted. "Definitely," Dylan said, and he grabbed on to Iceman's head as he said, "of you." Iceman, now under the control of the Shadow King, walked towards the door leading into the sick bay and froze it shut. A moment later, Shadowcat, holding on to Colossus' hand, walked through the ice as though it were never there in the first place.

"You're supposed to be a threat, right?" Dylan asked mockingly, as he hurled an energy ball at Colossus, hurling him through the ice wall, shattering it, all the way into the sick bay where he landed on a bed.

Candle flung her hand at Dylan, creating a fire wave that flew right at him; at the very same time, Dylan had released another energy ball which flew at the Scarlet Witch, but he changed it's course and soon, it cancelled out the fire wave. Dylan once again flung an energy ball at the Scarlet Witch, who screamed and raised her hands in front of her in defence; a blue shield appeared in front of her, and when the energy ball hit it, it ricocheted back at Dylan, and hit him square in the chest. The Shadow King fell out of Dylan's body, injured, whereas Dylan stood there, apparently unharmed, but nevertheless dazed.

The Shadow King quickly regained his bearings, and stretched his hands out at Dylan, attempting to possess him again. "Dylan!" Shadowcat screamed in warning. "Shadow King!" Dylan, only half-awake, turned around to face the Shadow King, and an arm composed of pink light - the arm of his psyche - reached out of his chest and punched the Shadow King in the eye, and then reached back into his chest and disappeared.

Suddenly, the Shadow King glowed black and vanished.

"What just happened?" Shadowcat asked. "A very good question, Kitty," Iceman, who had been just released from the Shadow King's control, added. "Hey," Psylocke said, putting her index finger to her temple, "I can't sense him anymore!" "And neither can I," Professor X said. "Perhaps it means that we've won."


	6. The End

"He's walking towards the tree," Psyche said, his eyes closed and his fingertips on his temples. It was yet another Danger Room session; apparently, the Brotherhood was causing mayhem at the park. "Nightcrawler," Cyclops said, "you heard him." "Yessir!" Nightcrawler said, disappearing in a cloud of smoke and the odour of brimstone. "I still don't get it, Psyche," Cyclops asked, "why can you now see with your eyes closed?" "It's called remote viewing, Cyclops," Psyche replied. "The Professor said that my time spent hosting the Shadow King has caused me to retain some of his power, and somehow it now means that I can see things without being there to actually see it."

Toad hopped onto a branch of a gigantic oak tree, below of which was a couple acting all lovey-dovey. Toad opened his mouth and let his tongue out, which lifted the man's cap off his head. When the couple had turned up to look at what had swiped his hat, they screamed and ran away, screaming that there was a "grey lizard boy on the tree". Toad laughed to himself as he watched in relish as the young couple ran and shrieked in terror. suddenly, a puff of black smoke which appeared out of nowhere revealed Nightcrawler, who leapt onto the branch, shouting, "I've gotcha, Toad!" Toad leapt onto another branch, just in time before Nightcrawler hopped onto the branch which he had previously occupied, shouting gleefully, "don't mess with the Toad, yo!" and used his long, grey tongue to knock Nightcrawler off the branch, just as the earth below the tree began to quiver.

"Magma! Your turn!" Cyclops said to Magma, who nodded and walked out of the women's bathroom the X-Men were hiding in.

Avalanche's near the jungle gym, Psylocke said to Magma, who replied, Okay, I'm on it, and ran to the jungle gym, where indeed, Avalanche was sitting on the highest bar of the jungle gym, waving his hand in patterns that the tremors followed.

Magma raised her hands as a ball of flaming magma formed, and hurled it at the jungle gym's lower bars, which melted and gave way, and the top portion of the jungle gym crashed to the floor, quelling the tremors by knocking Avalanche out cold. Out of the few bushes behind the jungle gym, a white and green blur sped out and knocked Magma onto the grassy ground, and then stopped in front of the fallen Magma to reveal that the blur of green and white was Quicksilver.

This time, the Scarlet Witch walked out of the tacky pink door of the women's bathroom. Quicksilver spotted her, and immediately began running towards her at a speed unattainable by normal humans. But, however, the Scarlet Witch was prepared; she lazily flicked her hand in Quicksilver's direction and her powers caused the friction in his path to grow by the thousands, and he suddenly stopped in his tracks and fell to the floor with quite an impact.

"Nobody can stop me!" Blob bellowed as he ran in the Scarlet Witch's direction as he picked her up in his gigantic arms and flung her aside like a banana peel. "Your call, Jean," Cyclops told Jean, who picked herself up with her own mind and flew out of the bathroom and fired a telekinetic blast at Blob. Unfortunately, the layers of extremely thick fats around Blob and the partial invulnerability given to him by his mutation caused the blast to merely irritate him. Being also of gigantic size, he reached his hand into the air and held onto Jean's waist and pulled her down. His massive strength was causing Jean to experience quite a lot of discomfort in her waist area. Jean tried to pull herself from his steel grip, but unfortunately, he was stronger.

"HELP!" Jean screamed at the top of her voice as she tried all ways and means to wring herself from Blob's grip; even her immense telekinesis was failing against the person who was more fat than muscle who was holding her with a force that could move mountains. Cyclops, upon hearing Jean's cry for help, ran out of the bathroom to rescue her. Cyclops was just about to turn on the switch that let his optic blasts out of his visor, but then thought about it again. he was not sure if Jean could withstand such a hit.

Another scream of help from Jean made Cyclops decide to fire his blasts at Blob from the back. Cyclops ran to Blob's back and turned on the switch, but unfortunately, the ruby red blasts just bounced off Blob harmlessly, to Cyclops' shock.

"Blob... please!" Jean shouted, and Blob replied, "but if I let go, you'll run away!" "Of course I will!" Jean screamed in both pain, anger and exasperation. "So I won't let go!" Blog shouted. The barrier that resided in Jean's mind, separating the conscious from the unconscious, let an immense telepathic force through, and Jean screamed, this time in the sinful joy attained through causing chaos and destruction, as she induced a planetary-scale stroke in the hologram that had held her so tight.

In a few seconds, the whole park faded away, leaving the X-Men in the Danger Room. The unbridled blackness which had appeared in Jean's eyes faded away as she floated back onto the floor, obviously weakened.

Cyclops ran towards Jean, and helped her up, asking, "Jean, are you alright?" Jean looked at him, and said softly, weakly, "Yes, I am, Scott," as deep down in her subconscious mind, a black figure, that of a man in a cloak, sat meditating.

Story over! Let's all celebrate with REVIEWS! I guess you should all know who will host the Shadow King in the sequel (yes there will be a sequel). 


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